From down to sit

I am working on re-training my almost three year old pug who is very stubborn. i am having a problem going from down to sit. He does sit to down nicely, but for some reason the reversal doesn't click with him. Any suggestions? Basically when I am working with him, I am doing a relay training session kind of. I go from one command to another that he KNOWS he is just usually too stubborn to do.

It may be that he associates sit as stand to sit and hasn't fully understood he can sit up from a down yet? (and not that he is stubborn)

Do you use a lure e.g. a treat? If he is in the down take it from just above and in front of his nose and lift the treat upwards and slightly back (towards his tail). He should follow the treat up into the sit. If he is used to you talking to him encourage him in an excited voice to "sit up" and if need be wriggle your fingers a little to make the treat/your lure hand more interesting (hopefully he will want to investigate and lift his front end up). You could also try moving your body towards his front feet a little, this will make some dogs sit back up again. If he does make upward movement praise him lots so he knows it is OK to move out of the down on your command.

I find this common in a lot of dogs. I think dogs interpret our signals as a motion, and not as a position. So "sit" means lower butt to floor, and when you tell them to do do that from a down they have no clue what you mean! (also why a lot of dogs don't know how to down from a stand, you've never taught it!) You can try holding a treat above his head to lure him, however I have problems doing this correctly so that the dogs don't jump. What I generally do is us my body pressure to claim the space where they are lying, but just enough so they sit instead of moving away. Sometimes leaning forward is all a dogs need, other dogs need you to actually move your foot right between their paws (actually touch their chest with your foot). Good luck, and I don't think he's being stubborn with this one!

Stormi and Flicka thanks for the help. Well, I have been luring and invading his space, although I have a problem with him jumping up for the treat and/or moving away when I move toward him (cuz he can't see the treat! OH NO!!). I guess this one will just take time. Flicka I think you are pretty right on about the motion/position thing. That would explain so much with my lil stubborn pug! Oh and trust me, he may not be being stubborn with THIS one, but so many times he is! lol That's just part of the breed though. Happy new year!

This motion confusion is hard for a lot of dogs. That's why we taught puppy pushups in puppy class. You can do this for your pug too. We lured sit down sit down and clicked every time the dog hit the right position then gave the treat. If puppy stands up take the treat out of sight behind your back and say whoops or silly or some indicator that that's not going to get a treat which is consistent. Then re-introduce the lure. After a few sessions try a sit down with only one treat after both, then sit down sit when he gets it with one treat. You work up to more for just the one treat. Then stop luring when it's pretty solid and wait for a few seconds if he doesn't do it right away.

Sort of a balance again between lure first, then reward, then ask more for each reward. Don't click for each sit down sit if you are at three just click for the last one and give a treat after the click. In other words don't sit/click down/click sit/click then treat. do a sit/down/sit click/treat. Again it's back to that generalizing mindset again. If the dog hasn't generalized sit from all positions he may not get it at first.

puppy push ups!!! That is an awesome idea! i started teaching him crawl, but since he knows those commands (sit, down) I am going to incorporate this into our daily routine. Hehe Stanley is seriously so cute in everything he does, i can just see him doing push ups now..... it's gonna be grand!!!!

What I do is take a step towards Sergeant's chest when he is lying down and lightly (barely touching him with my foot) step over - or hover my foot over - his toes just to make him feel that his toes are under my shoe (again barely touching his front paw/paws). He seems to immediately sit up. I follow it with great praise, maybe a treat. Now I may have to do that about once every 5 times i ask him to sit from a Lay Down. Try it, it might work, but probably not with little dogs.